Vaynom Blenner
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Vaynom 'Vay' Blenner was a Commissar attached to the Greygorian Third.[1b]
Biography
Blenner was born the son of an Administratum clerk and would have died with his father and the rest of his family when his homeworld was virus-bombed to eradicate a Genestealer infestation if he hadn't happened to have been off-planet visiting an aunt at the time. With his aunt apparently unwilling to take on responsibility for him, the young Blenner ended up in a Schola Progenium upon the world of Ignatius Cardinal, where he appeared to become something of a trouble-maker.[1a]
Blenner was one of the first scholars that Ibram Gaunt encountered when he was enrolled on Ignatius Cardinal, discovering Blenner scrubbing the floor tiles in a cloister with only a buckle brush. When the younger Gaunt questioned why this was so, Blenner explained that he had used live ammunition in a training exercise, and was being punished. He also told Gaunt that his father was a Space Marine who had died in battle and that his mother had killed herself at the news. Gaunt shortly found out that this was of course nonsense, and that Blenner was in fact being punished for being caught writing rude words about one of the teachers on a latrine wall. These antics of Blenner's were the first things to make Gaunt laugh since his father had died, a fact which formed the nucleus of what was to become a long friendship.[1a]
Both children graduated the Schola and became Imperial Commissars. Despite being posted to different regiments, they kept in touch and regularly reunited over the course of their careers. To Gaunt, Blenner offered a sense of permanency and a link to the past he felt was lacking in his military life, what with personnel changes and constant movement. Blenner spent over a decade attached to the Greygorian Third, a rather sedentary and low-risk position that resulted in him becoming somewhat weak and complacent in his role as a discipline officer. Despite these faults, and his continued predilection for the telling of tall tales, Gaunt still considered him a friend.[1b]
The two met up for the first time in several years upon the world of Pyrites, not that long after Gaunt was made commander of the Tanith 1st.[1b] Blenner's insistence on staying with his old friend and livening him up a bit resulted in his presence during an secret intelligence hand off between an agent of Navy Intelligence and Gaunt, as well as the subsequent attempt to gain the intelligence and murder those involved by a mysterious group of unbadged stormtroopers.[1b][1c][1d] In fact, Blenner saved Gaunt's life during this attack, surprising and slaying two of the stormtroopers who had Gaunt dead to rights.[1d] Having previously somewhat dismissed his friend as an out-of-shape drunkard, Gaunt was further abashed when Blenner waved away any attempt to explain to him what was going on, simply stating that he trusted Gaunt completely and that they were both loyal servants of the Emperor. Gaunt and Blenner reaffirmed the strength of their friendship as a result, with Blenner shortly afterwards being present for an altercation between members of the Tanith First and the Jantine Patricians regiment that was feuding with them. Once again, Blenner resolved to turn a blind eye to the illegal goings-on surrounding Ibram Gaunt.[1e][1f]
See also
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